LIVING GREEN: WHO ARE THE CLIMATE DENIERS? - BY BLAZE MCROB

 

Painting by Vi Huntley-Franck

In addition to my articles about pollution, I’ll be adding many Climate Change facts to my Living Green series. Everything is interconnected. One affects the other. I’ll be showing that as I move along.

Approximately 97% of scientific consensus on climate change agrees that humans are responsible for the global warming going on today. Who are the other 3%?

It is possible for some who believe in human-made global warming to fail to come to terms with it. Many use their denial for their own purposes or for those they work for. Yes, I’m talking about those with industrial, ideological, or political interests. Supposedly scientific studies arrive on the scene showing that people have been duped by the majority of scientists in the field. These propaganda machines are meant to sow confusion within the populace. After all, who wants to believe that if we don’t do what we can to stop global warming that we’ll have to learn the lost art of treading water forever and a day? That sounds alarming to most folks. However, it’s time to wake up and smell the roses, and stop drinking the Kool-Aid.

Conservative economic policies and industrial interests opposed to the regulation of CO2 emissions, such as the Koch brothers, fossil fuel companies and their lobbies, and right-wing think tanks produce most of the anti-climate change propaganda fed to the American public. A lot of people swallow it up.

I cannot stress enough the fact that politicians are muddying their hands in this. The big-oil lobbies fill their pockets with untold millions of dollars to do their bidding. This is true for both parties, although conservatives certainly are at the head of the receiving line. My suggestion? Make the lobbies illegal. Any lobby, in my mind, does nothing but bribe our elected officials.

Big coal is starting to crumble, but they’re not going out without a fight. They should be held accountable, as well.

In 2016, every Republican presidential candidate denied climate change. That’s only five years ago, folks. What’s changed since then? Nothing much as far as the Republicans are concerned. Would you accept them at their word, or would you accept the word of scientists instead? The answer’s an easy one for me. Science, it is.

For thirty years, the fossil fuel industry, political lobbyists, and media hotshots have been telling lies about climate change that cause doubt in the minds of many people. $200 million dollars a year is spent on such lobbying to stop needed climate policy changes.

Deniers suggest that climate change is just part of a natural cycle. Others insist that CO2 is too small a part of the atmosphere to cause enough of a heating effect.

How about the theory among deniers that climate scientists are fixing their data to show the climate is changing? Why would they do this? Certainly, a so-called scientist working for the big oil industry would be more likely to do this. That’s what they’re paid to do.

Some former skeptics agree with climate scientists but are concerned about the costs and other implications of many of the policies currently being advocated. In other words, climate change is now about the cost, not the science.

There are climate change deniers arguing that climate change is good for us. They say longer, warmer summers in the temperate zone will make farming more productive. These gains, however, are often offset by the drier summers and increased frequency of heatwaves in those same areas.

Deniers say that plants need atmospheric carbon dioxide to grow so having more of it acts as a fertilizer. This is true, but losing massive areas of natural vegetation through deforestation and changes in land use nullifies this, and, of course, the increased temperatures ravage the soil, lowering the moisture level in it, and make it non-productive. 

Don’t listen to these people. Get the facts for yourself. Read articles, journals, books. Whatever it takes. Remember, though, that many news and political sources are trash. Be your own researcher. Don’t throw you, your children, and grandchildren under the bus. Care about your family. Care about yourself.

Blaze McRob